R. A. Salvatore
R. A. Salvatore, a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, has some
two dozen books to his credit. His first book was published in 1988.
The Crystal Shard came from TSR, a Forgotten Realms title.
Two years later, with his first novel and its sequel sold to
Penguin, he quit his day job. When not writing, Salvatore spends time
speaking to high schools and library groups, encouraging people,
especially kids, to read.

The latest from the ex-TSR author of the very popular Dark Elf
saga, The Demon Awakens is an oddity these days. In a
genre filled with lengthy series, it appears to be a stand-alone novel.

While with TSR, Salvatore wrote pretty much formula stuff that
followed generally predicable plot lines, but his work managed to capture
the imagination of legions of readers (myself included) with some
genuinely compelling storytelling. His first non-TSR work, the Crimson
Shadow trilogy, was intriguing, in part, because Salvatore introduced us to a
main character who was truly more lucky than skilled. It offered
some suspense along with the heroic battles and epic struggle that
formed the core of the story. Unfortunately, I found the series soured
by the last book in which the hero became an unstoppable force of
legendary prowess and the evil wizard grew progressively more stupid as
the novel drew to a close.

So I was a bit leery of The Demon Awakens and wondered if
Salvatore would capture my imagination again or if the novel would
descend into the evil critter defeated by the good guys
morass of didn't-I-read-this-last-week? sameness that plagues the fantasy
genre. Worse still, Del Rey's
teaser chapter
starts pretty well, but ends with two thirteen-year-old kids
watching their village get raided by
goblins. I really detest lame lost children rescued by
the kindly wizard sent to save the world from the evil monster plot-starters.

But I like Salvatore's work. It's fun. So I picked up a copy and
gave it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the kids
chapter ran only about twenty pages before the story jumps ahead several
years. Salvatore spends over half the novel introducing the three main
characters and effectively building the background, so that by the time
the story really picks up steam I was devouring page after page.

Salvatore admits in his
Del Rey interview that Good generally triumphs over
Evil in the book, so the ending is never truly in doubt. Not that it
is often in most heroic fantasy, mind you -- in the end it's the journey that matters.
The twisting journey that gets us to the end of this book and the very real characters
who travel with us are what makes it important to see out how the struggle turns out.

If Salvatore's main goal is to write novels that are fun to read,
he achieves it with The Demon Awakens. And, if the new degree
of complexity he's achieved in both characterization and background are
any indication, his move away from TSR was a good thing (although
I'll miss the Dark Elf novels). I look forward
to his future offerings.